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INTER-MINISTERIAL CIRCULAR No. 8/TTLB OF JANUARY 31, 1996 GUIDING THE COLLECTION AND USE OF FINES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLATIONS IN CULTURAL AND CULTURAL SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Pursuant to Decree No.87-CP of December 12, 1995 of the Government on strengthening the management of the cultural and cultural service activities and stepping up the fight against a number of serious social evils;

Pursuant to Decree No.88-CP of December 14, 1995 of the Government providing for the fining of administrative violations in the domain of cultural activities and cultural services and in the fight against a number of social evils, and steeping up the fight against a number of serious social evils.

Pursuant to Directive No.814-TTg of December 12, 1995 of the Prime Minister to strengthen the management and establish discipline and order in cultural and cultural service activities, and stepping up the fight against a number of serious social evils.

Following consultations among the concerned Ministries and branches, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture and Information jointly provide the following guidance for the collection and use of the fines against the administrative violations in cultural and cultural service activities:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. From February 1st, 1996 all administrative violations in the cultural activities shall be subject to administrative sanctions according to Decree No.88-CP of December 14, 1995 of the Government.

2. An organization or individual on public duty who handles a violation must make a written record and issue a voucher for the violator to pay the fine to the State Treasury. The voucher on the fine must be made according to the prescribed form uniformly issued by the Ministry of Finance (the General Taxation Department). The management and use of the fine collection voucher shall be done according to the tax sealing regime of the Ministry of Finance.

- The decision to fine an administrative violation in the cultural and cultural service activities shall proceed according to a unified form issued by the Ministry of Culture and Information applied throughout the country.

3. The whole revenue from the fines against violations in the cultural and cultural service activities shall be concentrated into the State budget through the system of State treasuries.

- The local budgets are entitled to retain one hundred per cent of the revenues from the fines to supplement the expenditures on the activities of safeguarding order and discipline in the cultural and cultural service activities on the territory of the provinces and cities (including direct expenditures) for the personnel of the Central Government taking part in the safeguarding of order and discipline in cultural activities in the localities (provinces and cities).

4. The People's Committees at all levels shall direct and create conditions for the State Treasury to set up places for the expeditious and convenient collection and payment of fines.

5. A Vietnamese or foreign organization or individual that is fined for an administrative violation in the domain of cultural and cultural service activities in the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam shall have to pay the fine (in the Vietnamese currency) at the place written in the fining decision.

II. CONCRETE STIPULATIONS

1. Expenditures for the implementation of the Directive and Decree

1.1. At the central level:

- The activities of the Ministries and branches at the center aimed at implementing Directive No.814-TTg and Decree No.87-CP of December 12, 1995 of the Prime Minister which are regular and continuous activities shall be listed in the annual spending plans of the Ministries and branches and defrayed according to current regulations on financial management of the State.

1.2. In the localities:

- Spending for the organization of cultural control teams in the localities (city, district, town, ward and commune).

- Spending on the purchase of equipment and means for the inspection of the re-establishment of order and discipline in the cultural and cultural service activities in each specific locality.

- Spending on the training and professional exchange of the personnel in the teams to control and hand administrative fines and the cadres directing the implementation of the relevant Directive and Decree of the Government.

- Spending on the transportation of the objects seized according to the decision of handling violations and spending on the maintenance of the seized objects.

- Spending on the publicity and dissemination of the implementation of the Directive and Decree of the Government on re-establishment of order and discipline in the cultural and cultural service activities and the fight against poisonous cultural products.

- Spending on the printing of documents for education and publicity, control and handling of violations (according to prescribed forms).

- Spending on the State Treasury according to the general regulations on the collection and use of fines against administrative violations.

- Spending to reward persons doing off-duty work and those with meritorious deeds in the publicity and education for and in detecting and handling acts of violation. More concretely :

+ Spending on night duty and off-duty work according to Circular No.10/LD-TBXH-TL of April 15, 1995 of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

+ Spending on rewards: The maximum reward shall not exceed 30% of the fine in complicated affairs (reward for a whole collective and to individuals). The persons with continuous achievements in the year in the prevention, fight, detection and handling of administrative violations are eligible for reward for the whole year but the maximum reward shall not exceed 200,000 VND on a monthly average.

- Spending on duty allowance (if any) according to the current regime of the Ministry of Finance.

- Other spendings as may arise from the activities in service of the implementation of the Decree of the Government on re-establishment of cultural order not mentioned in the above stipulations. However, this spending must be based on an estimate approved by the competent authority and must comply with the current regime of financial spending and management.

2. Drawing up the expenditure estimate and allocation of fund

2.1. Basing themselves on the provisions in Point 1, Section II, the Ministries, branches and units assigned with the duty in the territory of the province or city shall draw up the spending estimate and send it to the financial agency of the same level for approval and allocation of fund for the activities in each month and quarter.

2.2. The Culture and Information Service in collaboration with the Finance and Pricing Service shall base itself on the revenue from the fines and the expenditures as stipulated above to balance the revenue- expenditure plan, ensure judicious and full collection and correct allocation of fund and management of its use for the right purpose and in conformity with the regulations, and carry out the ratification of the revenue-expenditure statement of accounts in conformity with the current financial regime.

3. Fining and collection of fines

3.1. The person with authority to hand fines against administrative violations in the domain of cultural and cultural service activities shall issue the fining decision to serve as basis for the collection of fine for the budget. The fining decision shall comprise two forms: one to hand fines up to 50,000 VND and one to hand fines in cases which require the writing of violation records (see attached form).

When handing a fine, the person with authority to fine shall issue a fine decision to be done in three copies (one to be handed to the fined person, one to be directly delivered to the State treasury agency by the fined person, and one to be kept as file at the State agency of the person with authority to hand fines). For the fines of two million VND upward, another copy must be made and sent to the People's Procuracy of the same level.

To ensure enforcement of the fining decision, the fined person must produce to the agency with competence to fine his/her identity card or a property with a value equivalent to the fine until the violator has fully paid the fine at the prescribed place.

3.2. The State Treasury may delegate the authority to collect the fines to a number of units, such as the Post, Taxation, Banking Service, but must ensure the principle of timely collection of revenue from the fines and their remittance to the State Treasury. The authorization fee shall be deducted from the total fines and lies in the estimates of the State Treasury in the province or city already ratified by the Finance Service.

3.3. The person with authority to fine shall have to guide the fined person to pay the fine at the most convenient points of collection of fine. In a number of special cases in which the fined person cannot pay his/her fine at the fine collecting point in the province or city, the fining authority may propose that the fine be paid at any point of collection of the State Treasury (or point of collection authorized by the State Treasury), but at any rate the time for fine payment must not exceed five days. The Central State Treasury shall have to monitor, check and guide the collection of fines. When paying the fine, the fined person has the right to ask the State Treasury (or the agency authorized by the State Treasury) to issue voucher 2 and voucher 3 of fine collection (voucher 3 shall be sent to the agency deciding the fine to serve as basis for the fined person to recover his/her paper or property).

3.4. The State Treasury shall collect the fine according to the decision of the person with authority to fine. In case of complaint and if the complaint is settled by the authorized agency, the State Treasury shall base itself on the decision to settle the complaint to make additional collection or to return the difference according to the new decision. Periodically each quarter and each year, the State Treasury shall report the accounts on the use of vouchers of fine collection to the tax agency which issues the voucher.

3.5. Periodically twice a month on the 15th and 30th days of the month, the State Treasury and the agency of the person with authority to fine shall consolidate and compare the whole of the fines (including both the fines already collected and those not yet collected) in order to have a clear account of the fines already collected, those yet to be collected and paid as well as those cases where forcible payment is required.

3.6. The whole of the administrative fines on administrative violations in the cultural and cultural service activities shall be left to the local budget and placed into a separate account for monitoring and to supplement the expenditures on the activities aimed at re-establishing discipline and order in the cultural domain and fight against the noxious cultural products.

The administrative fines on violations of discipline and order in the domain of culture and cultural services shall be recorded in the list of budget under Chapter 99, Type 14, Item 1, Category 9, Section 47 on fines in the cultural domain.

3.7. Each year the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Interior and the localities have to establish the draft expenditures on the activities to re-establish order and discipline in the cultural domain and to fight the social evils related to cultural and cultural service activities in the budget plan of the Ministries and branches, and send them to the Ministry of Finance to serve as basis for drafting the State budget.

III.- RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STATE AGENCIES AND THE PERSONS WITH AUTHORITY TO HAND FINES IN THE HANDLING AND COLLECTION OF FINES

1. When handling an administrative fine, the person with authority to fine shall base himself/herself on the specific level of fine stipulated in Decree No.88-CP of December 14, 1995 of the Government to set the right level of fine while guiding the fined person to carry out the fining decision as prescribed. If the fined person refuses to comply (delaying the payment of fine, not paying fully, or refusing to pay), the person with authority to fine is entitled to issue a decision of forcible enforcement and shall have the task of organizing the forcible enforcement according to Article 55 of the Ordinance on Handling Administrative Violations.

2. The Central State Treasury shall have to provide professional guidance and guidance on accountancy in the collection of fines in conformity with the above prescriptions. The State Treasury in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to set up tables of fine collection in order to make timely collection of fines for the State and ensure safety for the whole of the fines in a timely manner and also regularly follow the financial management according to State regulations.

3. The Finance and Pricing Service in the provinces and cities shall have to collaborate with the tax agency and the State Treasury to inspect and supervise the collection and use of fines as prescribed.

4. All acts of misusing the assigned task to collect fines without fining decision or without recording the fine in the voucher or recording it on a faked voucher are strictly prohibited. The person with authority to hand fines must not over-excersie his/her authority to harass the fined person, or to condone or cover up, or refrain from fining, or hand the fine not in time and not at the right level. The person who misuses his/her powers to violate these prescriptions shall, depending on the extent of the violation, be disciplined or examined for penal liability according to current prescriptions of law.

An organization or individual that violates the regulations on fining, collection of fines and use of fines in contravention of the principle shall have to bear responsibility for their wrongdoing or the wrongdoing of their unit before law.

IV . ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. This Circular takes effect on February 1st, 1996. All earlier regulations which are contrary to this Circular are now annulled.

2. The Ministers, the Heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the Heads of the agencies attached to the Government, the Presidents of the People's Committees in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government are requested to popularize widely this Circular and guide and control its strict implementation.

For the Ministerof Culture and InformationVice Minister

VU KHAC LIEN

For the Ministerof FinanceVice Minister

TAO HUU PHUNG